Does Indian print media need foreign capital?
The Indian print media is in for a churn. Circulation and print orders are growing. New newspapers are being launched. Bombay is seeing intense competition after many years. The influence of the market is also growing in all newspapers. The demarcation between news and advertising is getting thinner by day. In such a scenario, what role can foreign investment play? Can it better the situation or worsen it? Who will be the gainer in this game?
Delhi cautious on FDI in newspapers
Government seeks to expand growing newspaper markets to foreign investors
The Bangkok PostFriday, July 15, 2005
By Dinesh C. Sharma
The Indian government recently announced a new policy on foreign direct investment (FDI) in the print media. The move comes after years of discussion and debate in media and political circles on whether print media should be opened to foreign capital. While the well-entrenched print media houses opposed the entry of foreign newspapers, liberals felt there was no point in keeping print media out of bounds to foreign investment when foreign companies own and operate television news networks in India.
Full article at:
http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=26816
Caste courts rule in 'democratic' India
Caste courts deliver medieval justice
Verdicts in summary trials conducted by India's caste courts are becoming a major cause for concern
By DINESH C. SHARMA, Bangkok Post
New Delhi _ Revenge rape, stoning to death, public lynching, naked parades, forced marriage of rape victim to rapists, forced poisoning. It may be hard to believe, but such punishments are still meted out to the so-called guilty in summary trials held by caste courts in northern India.The medieval justice system is still prevalent in many Indian states despite the country boasting a modern, independent and pro-active judiciary and law-enforcement system.
These courts, known as Jaati Panchayats (or caste-based village councils), reinforce the age-old caste system and handle disputes involving members of a particular caste or community.The past month witnessed a spate of ''judgments'' from caste panchayats in Uttar Pradesh state bordering the national capital. In one such case, the caste court directed a woman who was raped by her father-in-law to accept him as her husband. In another similar incident, the rape victim was told not to report the matter to the court.
These are not isolated cases. A few months back, a caste panchayat in Haryana state directed a husband and wife to live as siblings because they belonged to the same sub-caste (people from same sub-caste are not allowed to be married to each other).In another case, a young couple was publicly killed for their inter-caste marriage. There have been instances when caste panchayats have ordered ''revenge rape'' as punishment while hearing rape cases.If a woman belonging to a particular caste is raped by men of another caste, panchayats have ordered men belonging to the victim's community to rape women of the other caste.These self-styled courts also exile men and women out of villages, seize their land and property and order social boycotts _ all in the name of caste justice.In some cases where Muslim panchayats are involved, the matter gets complicated further because they settle disputes citing the Shariat law.
Most of the diktats of these caste courts are directed against women and people belonging to weaker sections or the so-called lower castes. Certain backward castes are recognised in the constitution as Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, and are supposed to be getting special treatment in government schemes.''For the past few years we have come across a number of appalling judgments given by caste panchayats, especially in cases where women have decided to break the caste barrier and made a decision to marry someone outside their caste,'' said Dr Ranjana Kumari, director of New Delhi-based Centre for Social Reserch.
Full article at:
http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/08Jul2005_news34.php
In Bhopal, once again : a shame on welfare state called India
Was in Bhopal once again - after a gap of more than than six months - to cover the ongoing saga of Union Carbide. Everytime I feel the situation is getting worse, I hear new stories of neglect, apathy and corruption. This time around the issue of cleaning up of toxic waste lying at the factory. Also went to see solar evaporation ponds right behind the closed factory. It is a shame that such a place still exists in this country which prides in calling itself a welfare state. It is astonishing to see that a multinational corporation was throwing its waste in this medieval manner and got away with it for so many decades. Babulal Gaur will do a service to humanity if he can spend Rs 50 crore in remdiating these ponds and save innocent lives from slow poisoning, instead of wasting this money on erecting a monument at the plant site, as he has announced last week. It is criminal even to think of conversing this site into a park. Anyway, here is what I wrote for Bangkok Post and earlier for Hindustan Times:
http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/01Jul2005_news34.phpIn Bhopal, the tragedy continues
"Survivors of the world's worst industrial disaster remain at the mercy of a corrupt government and an impotent judicial system"
By DINESH C SHARMA
Bhopal _ The infamous Union Carbide gas tragedy keeps haunting the central Indian city of Bhopal. The issue this time is the cleaning up of toxic chemical stockpiles decaying in the closed pesticide-making plant for the past 21 years. Normally this should have brought some cheer to survivors, but it has not.All these years, residues of deadly chemicals at the factory have percolated into the soil as well as groundwater, polluting them a great deal. Chemical residues have been found in groundwater to a depth of 500 feet at some spots near the factory.An estimated 20,000 people in nearby settlements have been drinking contaminated water. Chemicals have entered the food chain and traces of pesticide have been found in human breast milk.
Scientifically speaking, a remediation plan should cover treatment of chemical stockpiles, buildings and other structures in the factory as well as treatment of contaminated soil including solar evaporation ponds located outside the factory and groundwater.This process could take several years and cost billions of dollars.
The continuation of this toxic legacy is a direct result of governmental inaction. The central or state governments never asked Union Carbide to decontaminate soil and remediate the site, despite persistent demands from survivor organisations.In March 2004, while hearing a petition from survivors, an appeals court in the United States ruled that it could consider remediation if the request comes from the Indian or Madhya Pradesh government.Despite this opportunity, they did not act. It was only after a 19-day hunger strike by activists that the Indian government relented and sent a letter to the US court in June 2004, saying that pursuant to the polluter pays principle recognised by both the US and India, Union Carbide should bear all the financial burden and cost for the purpose of environmental cleanup and remediation.The Union of India and the state government of Madhya Pradesh shall not bear any financial burden for this purpose.
While the liability case was still being heard in the US, the Madhya Pradesh High Court allowed a petition asking the state government to clean up the site. It fixed June 2005 as the deadline for the first stage of the cleanup.Curiously, the government did not tell the court that if it cleaned up, it would vitiate the liability proceedings in the US court.On the other hand, it started the process in right earnest and finished the first stage of cleaning up and even paid for it.This action has thrown the polluter pays principle to the wind and sent clear signals to multinational corporations pollute and escape, the taxpayer will pay up for your mess. Though the government says it will extract the cost of cleaning up from Dow Chemicals, the present owners of Union Carbide, the fact is that the High Court issued the cleanup order after hearing Dow's refusal to bear any liability or be dragged into the case.
Dow Chemicals, with which Union Carbide merged in 2000, has maintained it has no liability for remediation of the site and decommissioning of the Bhopal plant, though it did pay asbestos exposure claims against Union Carbide dating back to 1972.The cleanup begun by Madhya Pradesh government will further strengthen Dow's position on Bhopal.The present cleanup will make India's central and state governments appear not only inconsistent, but ridiculous in the eyes of the US court and others who have been following this case as an important precedent for the future, notes H Rajan Sharma, lead counsel for gas victims in US federal class action against Union Carbide.
Within India also, the hasty cleanup process has exposed double standards adopted by Indian authorities on the polluter pays principle.In May 2003, Hindustan Lever was forced to ship to the United States 290 tonnes of mercury waste from its closed thermometer factory in India. Now it is being asked to pay for remediation of mercury-contaminated soil outside the factory as well.
Several Indian companies have been served notices to pay remediation costs.Surprisingly, the Supreme Court Monitoring Committee on hazardous waste _ which issued some of these notices _ agreed to the Bhopal cleanup without insisting on polluter pays or realising the implications on pending cases of liability against Union Carbide.Legal aspects apart, the way the operation was carried out last week has raised the hackles of gas victims.
Satinath Sarangi of the Bhopal Group for Information and Action, said several hundred people have been affected due to the toxic dust that flew due to crude and unsafe methods deployed in cleaning up.MIC-exposed people were the worst hit because they are hypersensitive to any new chemical exposure, he said. The alacrity with which the state pollution control board has acted smacks of a clear design to protect Dow Chemicals, said Rashida Bi, another survivor-activist.
All these years, the Bhopal gas tragedy has come to symbolise the total lack of political will, suppression of information, denial of basic human rights and a government-corporate nexus to protect business interests.The first betrayal was the Indian government's nod for an inadequate compensation package, then the delay in disbursing the money (victims are getting the compensation now).Medical research data has been suppressed. The first official report was published only last year. Long-term medical follow up has been sloppy _ this year the medical facilities meant for gas victims have been thrown open to the general public.Survivors are forced to drink contaminated water as the government has failed to provide them safe supplies.Successive governments have never pursued court orders to extradite former Union Carbide chief, Warren Anderson.On top of all this, the government continues to do business with Dow Chemicals and powerful people are shielding it.Recently a spokesperson for the ruling party, an eminent lawyer, appeared in the court to defend Dow.
As Nityanand Jayaraman, a member of the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal, puts it, survivors of the world's worst industrial disaster remain at the mercy of a corrupt government and an impotent judicial system. BANGKOK POST
